Arch support and exerciser



June 12, 1934. R, J, RINGLE 1,962,527

ARCH SUPPORT AND EXERCISER Filed D80. 10, 1931 Patented June 12, 1934 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ARCH SUPPORT AND EXERCISER 5 Claims.

The mechanism of the human foot includes a framework of bones forming longitudinal and transverse arches, the bones being held in place by muscles, tendons and ligaments, lending great strength, stability, flexibility and resiliency to the arches. Originally, when mankind walked or ran over stones, loose and soft earth and in general, very uneven surfaces, the muscles and tendons of the arches were constantly exercised and thereby kept in condition. Civilization has of course changed this and now mankind walks on generally planar and unnaturally hard surfaces with the feet encased in relatively stiff and heavy shoes. Consequently, the arch has lost much of its original flexibility and strength.

The present invention has as one of itsv objects to proivde the now missing factor heretofore afforded by nature. The embodiment of the invention illustrated herewith operates on the major or longitudinal arch, in such manner as to work and strengthen all the arch portions of the foot. Heretofore, arch supports have been designed to relieve substantially all strain on the arches of the foot-in fact, to constitute little more than crutches or props. So far as I know, there has been no effective attempt to provide either for actively exercising the arch to keep it in a natural and strong condition, or any attempt to support the longitudinal arch in a manner such as will secure the proper balance on the foot and allow the bones comprising the transverse arches to assume a natural position without special supports.

With the above in View, a further object of the invention is to provide an arch exerciser and support which will afford the necessary resiliency and flexibility to maintain the muscles associated with the arch of the foot in an actively exercised condition, with the bones of the foot in a natural relationship. a

The principal characteristic of the arch support according to the present invention is that the arch of the foot is yieldingly but forcibly and constantly lifted to such an extent that the muscles of the foot adjacent the arch are forced to assume a natural position whenever the weight is off the foot and to actually perform their share of work in supporting the weight at all other times-whether standing, walking or running. 4

A characteristic of the present invention not found in prior arch supports is that there are longitudinally extending high camber springs, the ends of which are attached to the main body of the support in such manner as to provide for free lengthening of the springs in use, thereby avoiding undue wear on the sole piece or body of the support while permitting substantially unrestrained spring action.

In designing an arch support with longitudinal springs, certain fundamentals of construction '60 have to be considered. For example, the rearmost portions of the spring or springs must begin forwardly of the bearing surfaces of the oscalcis bone to avoid any rocking of this bone, and the forward end of the spring or springs must terminate rearwardly of the forward ends of the metatarsal bones, in order that the transverse arches may be formed naturally, it being remembered that this will occur if the longitudinal arch is properly supported or allowed to assume a natural position without extrinsic support. A further principle of construction that must be considered is that the highest point of the bowed surfaces of the springs must be closely adjacent the pressure axis of the foot, namely, between the cuboid and the scaphoid bones. The above fundamentals are taken into account in the design of the support and exerciser hereof, as will be presently shown.

Other objects and novel features of the invention will become apparent from the following description relating to the accompanying drawing, wherein I have shown my preferred form. The essential characteristics are summarized in the claims.

In the drawing, Fig. 1 is a bottom plan view of one form of arch support according to my invention (right foot adaptation), a portion of the support being partly removed for clearness of illustration; Fig. 2 is a plan view of the two 0 major spring elements; Fig. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view of the support in position in a shoe, the latter being diagrammatically shown; Fig. 4 is a detail sectional plan view showing one manner in which the spring ends are secured; Fig. 5 shows a modification of one of the spring ends; Fig. 6 is a sectional view, as indicated by the line 6-6 on Fig. 4, further showing details of the spring arrangement, and Fig. '7 is a plan view of a suitable metal blank forming the major part of one of the spring shackles, four of these blanks being required for a complete set of supports.

Referring again to the drawing, 1 is a main sole piece or body, preferably leather and in one 1 piece. The sole piece in order to fit both the shoe and foot and afford comfort to the wearer, is suitably rounded at both ends and featheredged as by cutting away marginal portions of the leather.

The support further comprises a high cambered spring, indicated generally at 2, but which, as shown particularly in Fig. 1, comprises a plurality of spring leaves or sections for greater flexibility, there being upper sections 3 and 3 directly adjacent the sole piece 1 and, if desired, an intermediate leaf 4 overlying and bridging both sections 3 and 3, lending additional spring strength thereto.

The ends of the spring leaves are suitably held to the sole piece, but in such manner that the springs may extend and retract individually longitudinally without affecting the leather either to wrinkle or stretch it. This is accomplished by the provision of spring end shackles, which as shown, comprise generally fiat sheet metal devices 5, preferably made as follows: A piece of sheet metal of substantially the shape shown in Fig. '7 is folded as at 6, Figs. 4 and '7, to underlie and overlie the spring ends as at 7 and '7. The sheet metal blank has end tabs '7" extended to be doubled inwardly against the adjacent portion '7 (see Fig. 6), thus holding the springs securely, but in a manner to allow for sliding longitudinal movement of the spring ends. The ends of the spring leaves 3 are slotted as at 8 and the slots embrace securing rivets 9 extending through both portions 7 and 7' of the shackles and the body of the sole piece, as shown in Fig. 6. The rivets are drawn down tightly on superposed portions of the structure in order to hold all portions thereof securely together, but this does not interfere with the longitudinal movement of the spring leaves in the shackles.

In case the intermediate leaf 4 is used, this has its ends extending within the respective shackles but the ends need not be slotted because the two rivets, as shown, will hold the intermediate spring against lateral displacement with reference to the support and the upper spring leaves 3.

If desired, the slotted ends of the sections 3 may be formed as shown in Fig. 5, wherein the slots 8a are shown as closed at their ends. This is optional.

In order to cover the shackle and portions oi. the springs which would otherwise lie in contact with the shoe, suitable patches may be provided as at 12 and 13. These may be made of leather or other material and secure to the sole piece in any suitable manner as by cement or glue. It is preferable to build up the sole piece surrounding the shackle and at the sides of the springs 'm order to avoid abrupt shoulders lying in contact with the cover patch material. Ground cork and cement is a suitable filler for thus building up the sole piece around the shackle, as indicated by stipple shading at 15, Fig. 1.

The operation of the support will be best understood by reference to Fig. 3, wherein the upper portion of the shoe is indicated at S, the sole at S and the heel at S. The rearmost end of the arch support is snugly seated against the counter of the shoe and it will be seen that in this position the intermediate portions of the support are entirely clear of the inner arch surface of the shoe, shown by a broken line at s, the highest part of the arch being in line with the normal pressure axis heretofore mentioned. The user inserts the foot in the shoe, taking care not to move the support from the position shown and tightly laces the shoe, slightly flexing the springs in so doing. This constant action of the support against the arch of the foot strengthens the arch muscles becauseof the massaging and exercising eifect of the high cambered springs. Each time the wearer rests his weight on his foot, the central portion of the support is depressed, usually substantially into contact with the arch portion of the sole of the shoe. It will be noted that the rear ends of the springs are disposed forwardly of the normal position of the anterior portions of the oscalcis and further, that the forward ends of the spring do not extend. beyond the normal metatarsal region of the foot.

Now it will be apparent that since in walking or running, for example, initial pressure is on the heel, the heel portion of sole piece 1 will be, in eifect, fastened to the shoe, and thereafter as the foot rocks forwardly and the support tends to flatten out, the spring elongates. However, this does not cause the sole piece to creep against the foot as it ordinarily would if the springs were fastened securely thereto at both ends. Instead the ends of the springs travel in the shackles 5-tvhich are in fixed position on the sole piece, this being permitted by the sliding connection described.

Both ends of each spring leaf may be slidably secured to the sole piece in accordance with Fig.

3. If desired, only the ends toward the toe of the shoe may be thus slidably secured, as this would ordinarily constitute a sufficient sliding connection to prevent stretching or wrinkling of the sole piece.

In Fig. 1, it will be noted that the spring leaf 3, which lies beneath the inner side of the foot, is the longer of the two spring leaves. This is because of the greater extent of arch at the inner side of a natural foot. However, the relative length of the spring leaves at each side may be greatly varied in actual use, depending upon the condition of the foot. Ordinarily, better results are obtained with the relative length shown in Fig. 1, namely, the main leaf at the inside of the foot being somewhat longer.

It will be seen from the above that I have provided a new method of arch treatment and a very efiective device for simulating, if not reproducing, the conditions to which the human foot were originally subjected by nature. Properly worn in the shoe-as above directed-the arches of the foot are extremely well supported and the muscles maintained in an exercised condition whether the wearer is walking, running, standing or in complete repose. In repose, the muscles are gently held in tension, while, when the wearer is active-as statedadequate properly balanced support and exercising effect is obtained. The individually yielding effect afforded by a plurality of longitudinally extending springs of dimensions proportional to the respective arch portions of the foot which they actively support, and mounted in shackles for entire freedom of movement in lengthening and retracting, as required by variations of imposed weight, are factors which compensate fully for the artificial conditions imposed by having to wear shoes and to walk on generally plane, hard surfaces. Moreover, it will be seen that when the axis of imposed load on the foot changes as by moving the body laterally with respect to the feet (in side stepping e. g.) the individual springs instantly respond to maintain yielding pressure corresponding proportionally to the imposed loads, thereby preventing strain on the different arch portions, as well as aifording a feeling of security and balance to the wearer.

I claim:

1. An arch exerciser and support, comprising a main body of pliable relatively soft material adapted to generally fit the arch portion of a foot, substantially fiat relatively, hard wear resisting bearing members secured in spaced relation on said body on its under side, and a plurality of upwardly bowed metal leaf springs arranged with the edges thereof closely adjacent each other and with the top surfaces thereof in intimate supporting relationship to said body throughout substantially the entire length of said springs, the upper and lower surfaces of end portions of the springs being slidably embraced and concealed by said bearing members for longitudinal movement independently of said body, whereby the springs are individually effective to exercise respective portions of the foot without danger of warping or injuring the body or the shoe.

2. An arch exerciser and support, comprising a main elongated body of suitable contour to generally fit the arch portion of a foot, a plurality of spring leaves associated with said body and metal shackles for slidably receiving the spring, the shackles being in spaced relationship and fixed position on the body, and securing members passing through the metal of said shackles and into the body, said members guiding the springs and holding the springs against lateral displacement relative to the body whereby the ends of the springs are guided for free independent longitudinal movement relative to the body under the pressure of the foot.

3. An arch support, comprising a main elongated body, a spring leaf associated therewith on the lower side thereof, a slot in one end of said leaf, a shackle device embracing said end adjacent the slot and a securing device passing through the shackle and slot and clamping the shackle to said main body to prevent displacement thereof while permitting sliding of the spring leaf relative thereto.

4. An arch support according to claim 3, wherein said slot is closed at both ends.

5. An arch exerciser and support, comprising a main elongated flexible body, two spring leaves incorporated with said body in edgewise parallel relationship, shackles of relatively hard wear resisting material on said body for slidably receiving and guiding the ends of said leaves, and an additional intermediate spring leaf in overlapping relation to both aforesaid leaves, and held at its ends by said shackles.

RALPH J. RINGLE. 

